METALLICA‘s new 3D IMAX movie, “Metallica Through The Never”, opens this Friday (September 27) on IMAX screens before expanding to more theaters on October 4.

A new video interview with members of METALLICA and the film’s director, Nimród Antal, can be seen below (courtesy of NME TV).

“We decided we needed to make this unique,” METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett told QMI Agency about the “Through The Never” movie. “So we came up with the concept of having a running narrative in the movie that weaves in and out of the concert footage. We liked that idea enough to tell our managers, ‘This is the type of movie we want to make.'”

“I think that METALLICA fans that are really into action films and movies with a lot of energy are going to be blown away,” METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told Revolver magazine. “This is a very unique film. I don’t know what people are going to think of it. I like it. But obviously I’m biased.”

METALLICA reportedly spent $20 million of its own money to make the film, which was screened at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas this past Wednesday (September 25).

The soundtrack, which features a number of METALLICA classics performed live in the movie, was released on September 24. The two-disc CD came out on METALLICA‘s own label, Blackened Recordings, also in digital and vinyl formats.

The concert sequences for the movie were shot in August 2012 at two shows in Vancouver, Canada and feature a stage containing elements of many of METALLICA‘s previous live productions from the past 30 years.

METALLICA members Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo spoke to NME TV about how their music might have influenced artists in the EDM (electronic dance music) scene. Check out the chat below.

METALLICA‘s “Metallica Through The Never (Music From The Motion Picture)”, the soundtrack companion to the forthcoming groundbreaking 3D feature film “Metallica Through The Never”, is likely to sell between 19,000 and 22,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to industry web site Hits Daily Double. The estimate was based on one-day sales reports compiled after the record arrived in stores on September 24 via the band’s own record label Blackened Recordings.

A two-disc CD set, “Metallica Through The Never (Music From The Motion Picture)” highlights last year’s career-spanning concerts at Rexall Place in Edmonton and Rogers Arena in Vancouver, where the band filmed all performance footage featured in the film.

“Metallica Through The Never” stars METALLICA, one of the most popular, influential rock bands in history. In this music-driven, 3D motion picture event, award-winning filmmaker Nimród Antal immerses audiences in a bracing, raw and visceral cinematic experience with spectacular live performance footage of METALLICA‘s most iconic songs — created exclusively for film — combined with a bold, narrative story featuring imagery drawn from the band’s trailblazing iconography. Dane DeHaan portrays Trip, a young roadie sent on an urgent mission, during METALLICA‘s roaring live set in front of a sold-out arena. The film features dazzling pyrotechnics, the most elaborate live-performance stage ever built and state-of-the-art 3-D photography, captured using up to 24 cameras simultaneously.

Picturehouse will release “Metallica Through The Never” in North America on September 27 exclusively in over 300 IMAX 3D Theatres, and will expand into additional theaters on October 4.

IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson has denied being involved in an airship venture to manufacture drones with a contract to supply the U.S. Army.

The blog Dorset Eye published an article titled “Bruce Dickinson: Rock’n’Roll Warmonger” in which the IRON MAIDEN frontman was called out for his “acceptance from the U.S. military of a contract to manufacture ‘lighter-than-air’ drones. The contract is believed to be worth anything up to $500,000,000, according to Conference Speakers International.”

In a written statement to NME.com, a spokesperson for IRON MAIDEN described the article as “spurious” and said: “This is a totally inaccurate and malicious piece of writing that seems to have stemmed from an unfortunate mistake in terminology on a South African website that the writer of said blog has since used as a starting point and catalyst to go off on a flight of sheer fantasy.

“Both Bruce Dickinson and IRON MAIDEN‘s manager Rod Smallwood were early investors in, and remain great supporters of, Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a company that has nothing whatsoever to do with drones, ‘lighter than air’ or otherwise!”

The statement continued: “As with many far-sighted technological advances, early adopters and financial supporters tend to be military-based as they have the resources to invest and develop, be that everything from space-travel to medicine. Possible military use of HAVs in future could be for heavy-lifting, transportation or high altitude detection of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), or similar, thus saving lives, both military and civilian.

“Rather than being involved in attacks in the Third World, as this writer has claimed in such an erroneously dramatic and defamatory manner, HAVs are designed to offer much needed assistance to civilians, businesses and governments that would be unavailable otherwise, due to the unique nature of these incredible vehicles.”

British metalcore act BRING ME THE HORIZON played a special intimate show in front of around 100 fans on August 22 at The Circle tattoo parlor in London, England for the third and final instalment of Converse‘s “Get Loud” music series.

A video interview with the members of BRING ME THE HORIZON about the gig (courtesy of NME TV), as well as fan-filmed performance footage, can be seen below.

BRING ME THE HORIZON‘s fourth album, “Sempiternal”, sold 27,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 11 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on April 2 via Epitaph.

The five-piece, consisting of Oliver Sykes, Lee Malia, Matt Kean, Matt Nicholls and Jordan Fish, recorded “Sempiternal” over a three-month period with super producer Terry Date (LINKIN PARK, DEFTONES, SOUNDGARDEN). The band also brought in David Bendeth (A DAY TO REMEMBER, PARAMORE) to add to the all-star production lineup and mix the album.

BLACK SABBATH members Ozzy Osbourne (vocals) and Geezer Butler (bass) were recently interviewed by Live Nation. You can now watch the second part of the chat at this location. Part one is available for viewing here.

According to The Pulse Of Radio, BLACK SABBATH‘s new album, “13”, is such a success for the reunited band that Ozzy wants to make another one — and hopes that original drummer Bill Ward can join the group in the studio this time. When asked by NME about the chances of Ward returning, Ozzy answered, “It’s a strong possibility. We would have loved to have Bill on this album. Maybe we can work things out by the next one. But it won’t take another 35 years. I’m 65 now. There’s no fucking recording studios in the afterlife. We’re all even closer for all this shit so there’s one positive, one fucking silver lining.”

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE drummer Brad Wilk played drums on “13” after Ward sat out the sessions. While money was believed to be an issue, Ward was reportedly also upset that the group wanted another drummer around anyway to back him up if he was physically unable to get the job done.

Ozzy told The Pulse Of Radio that Ward being out of shape was the main reason he’s not on the record. “Bill Ward has got the most physically demanding job of the lot of us, ’cause he’s the timekeeper. I don’t think personally he had the chops to pull it off, you know. The saddest thing is that he needed to own up to that, and we could have worked around it, whether we had a drummer on the side with him or something. But I suppose it was something to do with finances as well.”

SABBATH‘s future also depends on guitarist Tony Iommi‘s health. Iommi was diagnosed with a form of cancer in early 2012 and continues to undergo treatment for it. Ozzy told NME, “At the moment, we’re doing so many weeks on the road, then he has to go back for more treatment. He’s had chemo and radiotherapy, and now he’s on a thing to boost his immune system. I really hope it’s gone for good. I’m sure it has. But you never know with that stuff.”

“13”, the first SABBATH album in 35 years to feature Ozzy, Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler all playing together, sold 155,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, giving the group its first chart-topper ever in America.

NME TV has uploaded part one of a new video interview with Los Angeles theatrical rockers BLACK VEIL BRIDES in which they talk about how the band’s new album, “Wretched And Divine: The Story Of The Wild Ones”, reminded them of why they got into music in the first place.

Megadeth are ready for album number 14. Hopefully not called ’4teen’ or something.

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine was at NAMM in Anaheim, California this week to show off his sparkly new double-neck Dean guitar.

“When I went to Dean, I found out that the guitars were very responsive,” Mustaine comments. “And one of the most important things was the attention to detail. Also the relationship with me as an artist. Because the previous companies I was with, the guitars were good, but the relationship was sour. And I found that being with Dean was really good for me, because they took care of me as an artist, they took care of the guitars, they also knew what the public liked.”

SHINY

“Those of you that are distributors, you know that the younger generation, they want guitars that look cool and play great, that are affordable and that icons use,” he adds. For me, I’m flattered to be considered an icon, but I’m just a guitar player. And to have this kind of backing and support from a company that is as reputable as Dean is really flattering.”

Have a look at a video of the guitar being unveiled below:

Megadeth are currently busy beavering away at Vic’s Garage Studios in California, working on their fourteenth studio album.

The opus will serve as the follow-up to solid 2011 full-length Th1rt3en, which itself followed on from 2009′s Endgame, which we can all safely agree is one of the best thrash albums of the last ten years or so. Basically, Megadeth are on a roll again, so we’re stoked for this.

“Some of it’s a little darker, some of it’s a little faster,” motor-mouthed frontman Dave Mustaine recently told NME. “Being in this position right now, not knowing where we’re gonna go or what we’re gonna do, it’s kind of like the world’s ours to do what we want. Are we gonna go back to the speed and thrash metal roots that made us who we are? Are we gonna experiment and rely on the melody that we’ve discovered in Megadeth songs?”